The performance of a peripheral device that has a memory cache can be substantially increased when the size of the memory cache is increased. However, increasing the size of the memory cache of a peripheral device can be prohibitively expensive. Consequently, peripheral devices have limited cache capability built into them. This limited cache memory potentially provides a substantial burden on the throughput that the host and the peripheral device are able to handle, and thus achievable performance of the peripheral device in operation is a compromise of performance and cost.
Accordingly there is a need for effectively increasing the buffer memory of a peripheral device without additional cost. The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.